Investigators: Fire victim took her own life

The wheelchair-bound disabilities advocate who died in a fire in her Clinton Township home last week apparently took her own life, investigators said Monday.

Loreena Minaudo, 59, died Friday after sustaining severe burns and smoke inhalation in a fire that consumed much of her house on Biland Street near Heydenreich and Cass Avenue.

Detectives and fire officials conducting an investigation say it appears the woman -- who endured years of pain and discomfort from her affliction with cerebral palsy -- sought to end her life on her terms. They have ruled out foul play.

“The fire began in the kitchen when a towel was placed on the stove and the stove was turned on,” said Fire Marshal Steve Conroy. “It appears there was the intent.”

Minaudo, who earned an associate’s degree at Macomb Community College, was an author who wrote books and more than 40 children’s stories, along with two autobiographies including her latest effort, “Depression Has No Heart.”

She also was instrumental in having a new state law approved that allows people who cannot otherwise sign their names due to a disability to use a fingerprint as a signature on legal documents. Dubbed “Loreena’s Law,” the legislation was signed into law by Gov. Jennifer Granholm in 2005.

Clinton Township fire crews were called to the house Friday morning after receiving word from an alarm company about smoke filling the house. The alarm company also notified her nephew who lives down the street and he was the first to arrive at the burning structure.

The nephew, Thomas Minaudo, said he was confronted by a wall of fire as he pushed open the door and could hear his aunt’s voice in the background.

“It was horrible,” he said Monday. “At first I thought ‘I can’t go in there,’ but I knew I had to. I could never live with myself if I didn’t, so I guess the adrenaline just took over.

“I crawled on my hands and knees trying to find her in the smoke. It was like an out of the body experience.”

Thomas Minaudo, a custodian for an Oakland County school district who had helped care for his aunt, said he was able to find the woman by the light of the fire and tried to use his coat to put out the flames on her body while she was in her wheelchair. He then stood her up and dragged her out of the house.

He was aware of the investigator’s findings but said he didn’t want to think about their conclusion.

“She did the best she could throughout her life,” he said. “She learned to put up with a lot of limitations in her lifetime.”

It was the first fatal fire in Clinton Township since 2010.

Fire officials said firefighters who responded to Friday’s incident were emotionally drained by the woman’s passing.

“They did an excellent job in fighting the fire, but we’re all human and they took this one pretty hard,” Conroy said. “They wanted to save her.”

Loreena Minaudo is survived by her brothers, Joseph and Peter, and other family. Funeral services are being arranged by Wujek-Calcaterra & Sons in Sterling Heights. Visitation will be held Tuesday and a service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Therese of Lisieux Church in Shelby Township.